Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
MATLAB Programming
Every time you create an M-file, you are writing a computer program using
the MATLAB programming language. You can do quite a lot in MATLAB
using no more than the most basic programming techniques that we have
already introduced. In particular, we discussed simple loops (using
for
) and
a rudimentary approach to debugging in Chapter 3. In this chapter, we will
cover some further programming commands and techniques that are useful
for attacking more complicated problems withMATLAB. If you are already
familiar withanother programming language, muchof this material will be
quite easy for you to pick up!
Many MATLAB commands are themselves M-files, which you can examine
using
type
or
edit
(for example, enter
type isprime
to see the M-file for
the command
isprime
). You can learn a lot about MATLAB programming
techniques by inspecting the built-in M-files.
Branching
For many user-defined functions, you can use a function M-file that executes
the same sequence of commands for each input. However, one often wants a
function to perform a different sequence of commands in different cases, de-
pendingontheinput.Youcanaccomplishthiswithabranchingcommand,and
as in many other programming languages, branching in MATLAB is usually
done withthe command
if
, which we will discuss now. Later we will describe
the other main branching command,
switch
.
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